San Diego  San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer wants to write more checks to city workers.

But Faulconer will only do so if an employee comes up with an idea that saves money or somehow improves city services.

Faulconer and representatives of six city labor groups representing the vast majority of the 10,500 municipal workers unveiled the “San Diego Works” program Tuesday, calling it a good deal for taxpayers and employees.

“It’s an initiative to get City Hall working smarter and faster,” Faulconer said. “I’m very optimistic we are going to see some great ideas, and I believe there are hundreds of thousands of dollars we can save.”

Under the one-year pilot program, city employees are encouraged to collaborate within and between departments to create group ideas that generate savings and identify efficiencies.

Rewards will depend on how much savings a proposal generates. An employee and their team get to share in 10 percent of the savings from an idea — up to $100,000 for the team to share equally among its participants and up to a maximum of $5,000 per person. Ideas that don’t generate savings but improve customer service are eligible for at least $50.

A grand prize is also up for grabs for a successful proposal that generates an average annual savings of more than $1 million. A winning team in that category will receive another $100,000 to share amongst its participants and up to $5,000 per individual.

Michael Zucchet of the Municipal Employees Association said he thinks workers will seize on the offer.

“Employees don’t have any fun seeing a city where things could be done better,” he said.

The San Diego Works program isn’t a replacement for “managed competition” in which private businesses are allowed to compete with city employees to provide some municipal services. Managed competition remains in place with the rules for how it will be fully implement still under negotiation. Managed competition had been tabled under former Mayor Bob Filner.

The Faulconer administration and the city’s six major labor groups agreed to the cash for ideas program in less than two weeks and the City Council is expected to ratify it on Thursday. While it’s a test program, Faulconer predicted it will be around for a lot longer.

Ideas will be vetted and having their money saving numbers crunched by the new performance and analytics department created in Faulconer's fiscal year 2015 budget. The sweepstakes period for idea submission begins Aug. 15 and closes Nov. 15 to give the department time to assess how much money they can save. Directors and some employees not represented by labor groups are ineligible for a cash award but can receive non-monetary recognition for a good suggestion.

Frank Pitarro from the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees also lauded the program.

“We see it only as an opportunity to prove that not only is San Diego America’s Finest city, but San Diego is America’s most efficient city,” he said.

Mark Leslie, the new president and chief executive officer of the independent San Diego County Taxpayers Association, said as long as the program generates true savings, he sees nothing wrong with awarding cash to workers.

“It is a common business practice in private business and proven to be very successful,” Leslie said. “It’s also good sign when all the sides in the city can agree on something that has been successful in private industry. “As long as the savings are arrived at, the city and the taxpayers are well served.”